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Are you fit to be a
chiropractor?
Staying in shape to show patients how it’s done
By Mark Farmer
Consumers of health care services and products search for truth amid a cacophony
of voices vying for their attention. To make the right decisions in achieving
wellness, many may follow a time-tested method: If you want to be successful
at something, find someone who has done it and copy what he or she does. Chiropractors
can make use of this simple axiom by adopting a healthy lifestyle and staying
fit as a way to maintain a patient base and influence patient behavior.
“The greatest form of leadership is leadership by example, and if the
doctor is incongruent between what he or she says and who he or she is, they
lose value and they lose credibility,” says Dr. Bob Hoffman, who practiced
for 23 years and is now a principal at The Masters Circle, an organization that
puts on practice-building seminars. “[Patients] know that better health
through better chemistry is a belief system that has failed,” Hoffman
explains. “And they are looking for a better strategy.”
Blame the resulting confusion on supply and demand. With more of the population
in the hunt for wellness rather than merely reacting to disease, the market
response is an explosion of purported solutions. One niche that DCs can fill
is to show rather than tell.
“[Patients] go to a health food store and there are 12,000 different bottles,”
Hoffman said. “Which one should I take? They go to a bookstore and there
are 743 different diets. Which one should I be on? They want to start exercising.
They go to a gym and there are 400 pieces of equipment. Which one should I use?
They are looking for someone to lead them to the promised land of the improved
quality of life. And I believe the chiropractor is prime for that role. I don’t
believe that doctors of chiropractic need to be Mr. and Mrs. America who only
eat organic fruits and vegetables, but on the other hand, I think it is absolutely
a success strategy, besides a life choice, to be leading and living the chiropractic
lifestyle yourself.”
“Patients used to ask me all the time: Do you get adjusted? Of course,”
Hoffman said. “I’ve been under chiropractic care for over 30 years.
If it’s good enough for me, it’s got to be good enough for you.
I eat healthy. Am I perfect? Absolutely not. Do I know what I’m consuming
and do I take supplements to balance out my body’s chemistry? Absolutely,
and I believe every patient should as well.”
Dr. Dan Batchelor, a Marietta, Ga.-based chiropractor, is a longtime contributor
to sports publications and a recent winner of a triathlon. He notes the mixed
messages a patient receives when a doctor doesn’t walk the talk. “It’s
hard when a guy is overweight and smokes, and he’s telling the patient
how to be healthy,” Batchelor says. “You’re an example of
health, and if you’re not, then they don’t look up to you as much.”
Batchelor also points out two additional ways staying fit through sports has
helped his practice. First, he cites it as a way to network with patients. “I’ve
been running road races for 25 years in Atlanta, and so we usually know each
other from athletics. They may injure themselves in athletics or a car or fall
down stairs. And they think ‘Oh I know that Batchelor guy.’”
Second, he says the strain on the body from practicing chiropractic necessitates
fitness for longevity. “It’s pretty important for the doctor to
be in great physical shape to be able to handle all those patients. I do know
some guys who have been practicing for 20 years or longer and now they can’t
practice anymore because they are injured. They didn’t take care of their
bodies as they were going along.”
Paul Zane Pilzer, author and economic adviser to two presidential administrations,
is a convert to the wellness concept. He believes it can be thought of as a
new technology. Consequently, he thinks chiropractors are poised to leverage
their expertise, as well as their cash-based business models, to work closely
with patients on new approaches to health. He likens the notion to the way purveyors
of some health products use network marketing. Obesity, he says, is an example
of a problem wellness technology can tackle this way.
“You’re already seeing somebody who if they were able to [lose weight]
alone without a one-on-one coach, they would have done it before they came to
see you,” he said. “The only way to change somebody’s paradigm,
be it diet, exercise, or even outlook, is by a one-on-one, face-to-face. Network
marketing products come with a person who asks you if you took it on Monday.”
“Chiropractors by definition have a unique opportunity to me because if
you had a young MD in an office and he says, ‘The people coming in here
are overweight. I’m taking 20 minutes and asking about their diet and
talking to them,’ you’d fire him in five minutes. You know how a
doctor is: he spends two minutes with you, writes a prescription and moves on.
Their entire business… is built on remuneration. There’s nowhere
to check on the [insurance] form: ‘Spent a half an hour with a patient
and counseled him about his weight.’”
But chiropractors also have to look the part as well Pilzer contends.
“If you have any doubts of this all you have to do is turn on the television
or open a newspaper or magazine,” he says. “People spend hundreds
of millions of dollars on market testing. When’s the last time you saw
an unattractive person selling a product? We don’t want to admit it, but
appearance is the prime directive. And we’re not just talking about the
appearance of your face, which you’re born with, but your appearance in
terms of health.
“I joke because I see statistics that MDs are the most overweight of the
upper professions. They are probably the most unfit profession. It’s very
funny when some of them think they are going to sell wellness and some of them
are obese.”
“Now, if you’re not fit,” Pilzer continues, “it’s
a great opportunity. There’s one thing you should do before going to get
fit. Take photos, and put them on the wall. I would not choose an obese practitioner.
I might choose one who had a picture on the wall of what he used to look like
and how he looks today.”
Hoffman believes two major forces have driven the shift toward wellness sensitivity.
The first is the Internet. The Information Age has empowered patients like never
before. They are no longer content to wait until they get sick to focus on health.
The second is baby boomers, who have watched their parents die of a host of
protracted ailments. “They want to increase quality of life and longevity.
And that could not be more perfect for chiropractic,” Hoffman maintains.
While empirical data on the correlation between doctors’ fitness and their
practice success may be scarce, Hoffman believes all practice consultants are
finding that chiropractors who direct their orientation toward wellness are
outpacing those who are still trapped in the treatment of disease.
“One of the things I learned a long time ago is that when you take care
of patients based on an agreement of you removing or reducing symptoms, one
of two things always happens,” he says. “They get better and the
patient leaves happy or they don’t get better and they leave unhappy.
Either way, they rob themselves, they rob the chiropractor, and they rob the
chiropractic profession of the miracles that chiropractic has been famous for.
Chiropractic was never designed to treat a disease and you’re done. It’s
a lifestyle.”
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